Difference between Customer and Consumer

Customer and Consumer

Although reference is frequently made to a consumer with the same designation as a client, since both acquire a product or service, there is a main difference between one and the other.

On the one hand, a consumer is the person who makes a purchase or acquires a service, either in a local, through the internet, by telephone or any other means, without being faithful to the brand or the business. A customer is one who has taken as a consumer habit to make purchases or acquire a service in a certain store or of a certain brand.

Customer characteristics

Generally, the customer enjoys buying or consuming the product or service because over time they have built a relationship of loyalty and loyalty with the brand. Companies often get to know customers, allowing them to direct their efforts and attention to satisfying them.

Consumer characteristics

Consumers are often anonymous and purchase a product or service out of necessity. When choosing, consumers are governed by economic parameters, geographic proximity or by being in a certain place or specific situation.

Objective of companies in front of their clients and consumers

Companies are committed to creating customers, rather than having a market full of consumers, since the latter can vary in their consumption modes and be erratic in their purchasing behavior. It is for this reason that the goal of every company is to transform consumers into customers.

Companies orient marketing messages and strategies towards loyalty and propose special offers or benefits specifically for this purpose.

The development of technologies makes customers are exposed to different types of similar products. Companies must increase their efforts to keep their customer satisfied, both with the quality of the product or service, as with attention, and in the best of cases, getting them to recommend the product or service to friends and known.

Although the use of an occasional service does not convert the consumer into a customer, it is important that the The company strives to provide a good service and resolve the doubts or queries of the consumers. Social networks and face-to-face or telephone assistance as a direct communication channel with the company, are opportunities to bring services or products to the consumer and transform it into a potential client.